M. S. de Silva, Fifth year Remembrance:

Businessman with journalism in his veins
 

by Ajith Samaranayake

Although one of Sri Lanka's pioneer and successful businessmen M. S. de Silva liked to be considered primarily as a newspaperman. That was because of his early nurturing in the old "Times of Ceylon" in the days of immediate post-colonial rule when nevertheless the newspaper was still very much the organ of pukka sahibdom.

Samarasiri de Silva was one of the early pilgrims from South Ceylon to arrive in the metropolis seeking the pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow. Those were the days when the pavements of Colombo were literally paved with gold.

Starting as a journalist in the 'Times' M. S. was fortunate to work along-side some of the best journalists of the time who considered themselves primarily as gentlemen belonging to an exclusive club somewhat like the Athenaeum in London. This is a time which has been evoked by Don Moraes in his autobiography 'My Son's Father' in which he recalls the time when his father Frank edited the 'Times'.

He was followed by Tori de Souza and among the galaxy of talent on the paper then was R. B. Tammita, Francis Ashborne, H. E. R. Abysekera and D. R. Udalagama among others. W. Lionel Fernando was the chief reporter with many a scoop to his credit.

M. S. never quite forgot those early days and was proud of his roots in the press. In later years he was to lament the passing of standards and the erosion of values in the profession: For M. S.'s links with the press and pressmen went quite deep for after leaving active journalism he crossed to the other side as it were and became a Government Information Officer.

Those were the days when Information Officers were themselves seasoned journalists and not the hurrah boys of Cabinet Ministers and could be depended on to give real news stories and not sunshine stories to newspaper people.

A turning point in M. S.'s life was when he decide to switch horses and choose a life in the world of business. No doubt the many contacts he had made as a journalist stood him in good stead but he had to sweat his way to the top and Trade Exchange (Ceylon) Ltd., as he styled his company owed much to his own hard work and business acumen.

His best known company was Laklooms which introduced a new motif not only into Sri Lankan entrepreneurship but also to local fabrics. He was one of the first to start business dealings with the People's Republic of China long before Richard Nixon scaled the Great Wall under Kissinger's tutelage.

The Chinese bicycles which he introduced into Sri Lanka in the foreign exchange starved early 1970's were particularly popular.

Unlike most business people M. S. was a supporter and sympathiser of the SLFP and Left parties and sometimes had to pay dearly for his convictions.

However he never wavered in these and considered business as a legitimate vocation with its own ethics and values.

He did not profit by governmental patronage and was particularly scathing about those businessmen who used their political connections to milk the State banks. This he considered a violation of the ethics governing commerce.

The swarthy M. S. who always dressed in white could look dour and unsmiling but this exterior hid a warm heart.

He was an excellent host with his wife Karuna who brought her own characteristic flair to Laklooms and I remember a couple of convivial evenings I spent as a young reporter at their homes in Raymond Road, Nugegoda and Rosmead Place, Colombo not to mention a grand dinner he hosted at the Colombo Oberoi to celebrate the success of his film 'Madol Duwa' directed by Lester James Peries and based on Martin Wickremasinghe's celebrated novel.

M. S. took the ups and downs of life with a stoic calm which he no doubt derived from the philosophy of Buddhism although he was no fashionable Buddhist wearing his religion on his sleeve.

The most endearing image of him will be of a businessman who believed in the ethics of his calling and a man who never escaped the magical pull of his first love, journalism.

(This article first appeared in The Sunday Observer, February 3, 2002.)